Renata Hesse, senior FCC counsel for transactions, asked AT&T in...
Renata Hesse, senior FCC counsel for transactions, asked AT&T in a letter why the company concluded that building out LTE to 97 percent of the nation makes economic sense only if the company is able to also buy T-Mobile. According…
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to an earlier filing, posted on the FCC website by mistake, AT&T’s top officials rejected a proposal earlier this year to expand the system to the same coverage levels prior to the merger announcement, citing the $3.8 billion expected cost (CD Aug 12 p1). “We understand that AT&T’s senior management concluded the transaction would improve the likely return on the additional LTE deployment to create a business case for this deployment where one would not exist absent the transaction,” the letter said. “Although AT&T has stated that it has not quantified the transaction-related changes in the business case for extending its LTE footprint, we ask that you supplement your filing with any documents or analyses explaining why the changes in cost, revenue, and/or profitability are likely to be large enough to change the overall business case for the additional deployment.” AT&T spokesman Mike Balmoris said the company expected the FCC to ask more questions on that topic given the detailed review underway. He said the additional information “will further confirm that we would not be able to deliver 4G LTE to 55 million more Americans without our merger with T-Mobile."